Newcastle United vs Crystal Palace
Date: 21/12/2019
K/O: 15:00
Venue: St. James’ Park
Referee: Simon Hooper
The two worst offences outside of the relegation zone take to battle in what is sure to be an enthralling defensive contest at St. James’ Park as Newcastle host mid-table rivals, Crystal Palace.
Boasting an unavailability list of at least five of their best XI, this week’s visitors, Crystal Palace, still managed a draw at home last week against their irrevocable enemies, Brighton. Similarly, Newcastle also went into game-week 17’s fixture against Burnley missing five of their best but they succumbed to the lack of man-power. Led by first-time skipper, Andy Carroll – who is still trying to form a bridge between his last Newcastle goal nine years ago – Newcastle battled valiantly and even won the possession count for the first time this season from their 17 league games.
They also mustered the most amount of shots on goal (nine compared to Burnley’s seven) but, worryingly, none of them forced a save from the opposing keeper, Nick Pope.
Shooting has not really been one of the Magpies’ strengths this season. They linger in 19th spot in terms of average shots on goal (10.1); just one spot higher than their opponents this week who are the only side to average less than 10 shots per game (9.5).
The number of shots they can fire have been particularly depressing in the absence of Allan Saint-Maximin. Unarguably, the flamboyant Frenchman has struggled with his end product throughout this season. However, one thing that is unarguable is the fact that wherever this must-watch player goes, his team creates, and this is ever-evident this season.
With Saint-Maximin in the team, Newcastle average 10.6 shots per game compared to 9.3. At first glance, this may not seem like a whole lot, but in the scheme of a season and with a large sample size a deviation of over one shot per game – when you’re already averaging a heart-rending number of shots – is quite telling.
Even more to the fact, Steve Bruce’s side expresses a 60%-win ratio with the league’s second-best dribbler (on average successful dribbles per game), compared to a telling 0% without him in the starting line-up. Encouragingly enough, they did create good opportunities despite missing their star-man. Andy Carroll and Dwight Gayle both missed chances they will look back on with regret – particularly the latter.
If Newcastle go about it this weekend in the same fashion they did against Burnley, they will give themselves every opportunity to take all three points against Palace. Winning the possession count could be on the agenda yet again as their opponents have enjoyed the third least amount of the ball this season, averaging 44.8%.
Last week, Newcastle were able to sit back and pass the ball between themselves, albeit without threatening their opponents too much. Against Palace, they may find that more tough. Roy Hodgson has been trialing a high midfield line in recent weeks when his team have not had the ball.
Against sides who prefer not to have the ball such as Burnley (average possession of 43% – the second-lowest in the league) and Bournemouth (46.6% – 14th in the league), this tactic helped the side to two consecutive wins. Against Brighton in game-week 17, who boast an average possession in the majority (53.9%), pores were found in their midfield line on a few occasions.
Another factor that may have contributed to Brighton being able to pass their way through the midfield in various instances may have been the inclusion of Christian Benteke upfront.
Historically, his pressing presence is less known to the opposition in comparison to that of Jordan Ayew. In saying that, against Brighton, he most certainly improved in this regard. On multiple occasions, the Belgian put in maximum effort sprints chasing the opposition defenders and was visibly frustrated when his teammates did not follow suit leading to the evolution of a Brighton attack. Benteke, also contributed offensively as well, taking four of his team’s 11 shots which included three on target which were the only saves that Mat Ryan made that evening.
This high midfield line has most likely been implemented to compensate for a distinct lack of defensive personnel. This tactic has certainly proved successful with Hodgson’s men earning seven points of a possible nine from their last three fixtures.
Team News
Newcastle United
The aforementioned Saint-Maximin will have to watch again from the sidelines as he continues to recover from a thigh injury. Matt Ritchie and Jamal Lascelles will most likely be joining as it may still be a game-week too early for the latter.
Jonjo Shelvey’s one game rest came at a cost with his side losing in his absence. Shelvey said to NUFC TV on Tuesday the 17th “It was probably key to miss one game rather than six or seven. I should be back training by Thursday so that’ll give me a chance to play on Saturday.” So Newcastle’s top scorer should be back amongst the starting XI against Palace.
Crystal Palace
Jaïro Riedewald will add further to the Eagles’ injury list after aggravating a hip injury that he picked up the day before the match against Brighton – his first start since April 2018. He joins Andros Townsend, Gary Cahill, Jeffrey Schlupp and Joel Ward as definite absences this weekend in addition to the suspended Mamadou Sakho who will miss the last game of his three-match suspension this weekend.
Gameweek 18 may come too soon for Patrick van Aanholt whose return should be sooner than the rest that have been mentioned. Thus, with all three possible options at left-back exhausted, Palace now find themselves in a similar position when they awarded Aaron Wan-Bissaka his Premier League debut in February 2018.
No player at the club has played a first-team game at left-back, apart from midfielder James McCarthur’s 45-minute stint against Brighton. This means that Tyrick Mitchell, who made the first-team squad for the first time in game-week 17, maybe granted his Premier League debut. No pressure.
Predicted Starting XIs
Newcastle United (5-4-1): Dubravka; Manquillo, Schär, Fernández, Dummet, Williams; Atsu, Shelvey, Hayden, Almiron; Carroll
Crystal Palace (4-3-3): Guaita; Kelly, Tomkins, Dann, Mitchell; Kouyaté, Milivojevic, McCarthur; Ayew, Benteke, Zaha
Score Prediction: Newcastle United 0-1 Crystal Palace
Both teams are already decimated by injuries so you can almost guarantee this will be a turgid affair between two managers whose teams are characterised by defensive solidity. However, both teams possess players capable of flashes of brilliance and the visitors more so.
